Masquerade Party?
by REDskies
Summary: What better time than Christmas to ask someone out on a first date?


**Title:** Masquerade Party?  
**Written For/Drawn For: **acire666 at the **himitsu_santa** secret santa gift exchange  
**Fandom:** Phoenix Wright  
**Request Written:** _Gumshoe/Maggey. On their first date._  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** It's Christmas, and what better time to ask someone on a date? Gumshoe/Maggey

"The Christmas masquerade ball?"

Not trusting his voice (and his misuse of words, which had let him down so many times before), Gumshoe simply nodded.

"Organized by the police department?"

Another nod.

"... For me? You want to go with me?"

A series of rapid nods. This, after all, was the point which had failed to get across the previous times. A box of chocolates (cheap chocolates, but even they took a good few dinners out of his pay) had been distributed to the entire police department instead of going to Maggey. An offer of a "spare movie ticket" (which was not so much "spare" as "emptied the wallet with") had been used by another detective which Maggey said, the next day, "had wanted to see the movie for ages now, but he never had the money! So I thought that your free ticket would be so much better for him. No sense in letting something like that go to waste, right detective?"

Gumshoe couldn't bring himself to fault her for that, though. That simplistic charm and heart of gold was _exactly_ what had brought on this little crush.

And he wouldn't fail this time. It was _Christmas_, after all, what better time to try?

But with the two tickets still in his outstretched hand, this was feeling remarkably close to a rejection.

"Oh sir! I would love to! Thank you! I was going to buy a ticket myself, but after thinking about the presents I still need to buy, the cost of my outfit that night, plus the ticket itself, I thought it'd be better to just-"

"So you'll go? With me?" Gumshoe cut in. Not that he wasn't interested in hearing her talk, he just _really really_ needed to make sure.

Straightening her back, pulling her heels together and giving a crisp salute that any training officer in the academy would be proud of, Gumshoe couldn't help but think that "Yes sir! Of course I will!" was the best thing he'd ever heard.

He broke into a huge grin as he barely suppressed the urge to simply hug her in relief. "That's really _really_ great, Maggey! So what will you be wearing?"

"Oh detective, I have the perfect idea! If you don't mind me asking, would you like to go into the lounge and get some instant noodles while we talk about it? I'm just really hungry and..."

Gumshoe felt dizzy with pure bliss. He always felt guilty taking the cup noodles in the staff lounge, but he supposed that he'd just do it again this once. "O-Of course! Hey pal, why don't you head over first, and I'll be over in a sec. I kinda have to do something first."

With another exchange of a salute accompanied by an "Of course sir!", and another face-breaking grin, Gumshoe ran his way to Edgeworth's office.

*

Forgetting to knock in his excitement, Gumshoe threw the door open and ran in shouting. "Mr Edgeworth! Mr Edgeworth! I-"

However, the words died on his lips the second the prosecutor looked up from his paperwork. The glare was positively icy and seemed to be threatening another pay cut. But before such intentions could be signed to confirmation or said with the perpetual coolness Edgeworth always seemed to have, Gumshoe quickly bent himself in a perfect ninety-degree bow.

"THANK YOU MR EDGEWORTH, SIR."

A stretched out silence, as the detective's head was still bowed, and Edgeworth only giving him a single raised brow, and the courtesy of stopping his paperwork.

"... If that will be all, detective, please-"

"B-But Sir! I just uh, really wanted to thank you! For your help. And those tickets! I knew that it was right to come to your for-"

"Detective, I was the one who called you into my office because you were sighing at your desk every five minutes, according to the other detectives, and getting even less work done than normal." Edgeworth paused, eyeing the now flustered detective. "Of course, that means less mistakes made but..." He sighed irritatedly. Honestly, even without Gumshoe to mess things up, the rest of the detectives did plenty to cover for him. "So I assume she took it well," He asked, picking up the pen again.

"Y-Yes! She did! And we were just about to discuss our costumes, but I thought that I should thank you first, Mr Edgeworth!" Another bow, received by a distracted nod, as Edgeworth continued to skim the papers laid out in front of him.

As Gumshoe silently (he didn't want to see that first glare again) closed the door behind him, Edgeworth couldn't help but wonder about the detective's choice of words.

_Who wears costumes to a formal masquerade ball?_

*

Sipping from his wine glass, Edgeworth surveyed the room, confirming his thoughts of the party being an absolute waste of time, as he wondered what made him purchase his own ticket in the first place.

It was all as he would predicted the party to be, too many people from work, too much alcohol, too many people from work getting drunk on said alcohol, and even worse behaviour than usual. Miles contemplated the idea of a night sipping whisky at home instead.

However, he was vaguely interested in how his little intervention would turn out, and so he had come. Although quite mysteriously, neither Gumshoe or Maggey were in sight, even though the party had been going on for over an hour now. He was quite sure that being the people that they were, the two wouldn't waste something as expensive as tickets, even if they weren't the ones paying for them.

Fumbling with his mask (_damn the welfare committee and their ideas_), another exasperated glance across the room and he was quite sure that neither of them were in the-

_Speak of the devil?_

No one, Edgeworth thought to himself, quite amused, would have ever been able to miss them, in their uh, unique dress style and interpretation of the dress code and name of the ball.

Only they, after all, would ever take "masquerade" to be "fancy-dress" instead of "masked".

Showing their somewhat patriotic spirit to the organization they were in, the two of them were dressed in very matching Blue Badger outfits, the trademark hats with yellow bobbles hanging off each end, blue suits (although Gumshoe, being plumper, seemed to fill out his better) donned instead of the standard black dress or suit as seemed to be the style of the night. And they even matched the festive occasion, donning Santa-esque hats on the top spike of their Blue Badger hats.

A collective silence filled the room before the reality of the two most obtuse (and perhaps, therefore well-matched?) in the room hit them, sending everyone into a laughing frenzy.

"Sir! I told you that we'd be the most striking of them all!" Maggey grinned, her salute almost knocking the heavy hat off.

Righting it, Gumshoe scratched his head (or at least attempted to, through his own hat). "Uh... I suppose that's one way to put it. G-Good job, pal!"

Saluting again, before dissolving into giggles (because each time she saluted, her hat seemed to tilt dangerously and her hand-paddles threatened to whack herself in the head), Gumshoe escorted his date to the buffet table. Since they were here, they might as well take advantage of the free food, he thought.

Edgeworth shook his head, but even he knew who he'd be voting for best dressed of the night.

*

"S-So uh, I guess you're going up, eh?" Gumshoe asked, the two (still costumed) standing at the lobby of Maggey's apartment building. With no car, the detective still offered to walk her home, even though his own little shack was in the other direction. Oh the perils of gallantry.

"Yes sir," she smiled, barely suppressing the urge to salute. He had very embarrassedly asked her to stop, after her elbow had knocked into another party-goer's head for the fifth time that night.

Fingering the two food vouchers in hand, their collective prize for best-dressed, Gumshoe hesitated. Should he ask?

_I mean, it's her prize too, y'know? Would it be uh, bad of me to ask? What if she-_

"So detective, when should we go for um, dinner?" Maggey asked, breaking into Gumshoe's line of thought. "W-With the food vouchers, I mean. S-Since we won them together, we should use them together, right? How about Christmas, sir? Unless you have something else on or-"

Glancing up from where he'd been staring (pointedly at the ground), he caught sight of her face, as flushed and nervous as his must have been.

And it felt completely natural to kiss her on the cheek after handing a ticket over.

"Christmas sounds great, Maggey," He grinned, as a matching smile reached her face.

"T-That's great, sir! So," she stepped back a few steps, her hat (hats?) colliding with the low doorframe, knocking it askew. "Merry Christmas Eve's Eve!"

"Merry Christmas Eve's Eve to you too, pal!"

As the heavy wooden door closed, Gumshoe tried his hardest to resist the urge to dance across the street (which would be jaywalking, kind of).

Christmas had come early this year.

*

**A/N:**  
_LATE FIC IS LATE. This was supposed to come in yesterday, when it was really Christmas Eve's Eve D: I'm so sorry, but I hope it was alright! I know you didn't specify for it to be Christmas-centric, but I thought it was a nice touch, heh. First time writing for the Phoenix Wright fandom, and I loved it! Hopefully, Gumshoe and Maggey (and Edgey!) aren't too out of character. Merry Christmas everyone!_


End file.
